Donald Trump gave a live, televised address to the nation last night. The White House forced all of the networks to give him airtime in primetime. Some people thought that Trump was going to announce a ground invasion into Venezuela. Hold that thought, because I’m sure that’s coming. But instead of announcing a war or some big policy change, Trump basically ranted like he spent hours snorting Adderall. What was the point of all this? Some theories: one, the Epstein files will be released tomorrow and Trump is trying to distract from that. Two, the White House’s in-house economic numbers are terrifyingly bad and they’re worried that the media might actually start reporting about how Trump has frog-marched America into a deep recession. Three, Trump went out there to distract from his chief of staff’s disastrous Vanity Fair interview. Per the Daily Beast:
Donald Trump admitted he was forced to give a bizarre national address by Susie Wiles, his embattled chief of staff who is clinging to her job after a loose-lipped profile in Vanity Fair.
Wednesday night’s 18-minute double-speed diatribe saw the 79-year-old president fire off mistruth after mistruth about how well his administration is doing and attack his predecessor, Joe Biden—but without having anything new to say.
The White House address was carried live by the major networks, with CBS forced to interrupt the live finale of its reality TV show hit Survivor so viewers could catch the presidential speech.
Some of Trump’s key allies could not understand why he had decided to give the last-minute speech ahead of the Christmas holidays and were “surprised” he had done so, especially since there was nothing new to announce, according to a Zeteo report.
But in seemingly unguarded comments made in front of journalists after the address, Trump gave the game away. The president admitted that it had not even been his choice—and that Wiles had made him do it, as she battles to survive the fallout from her embarrassingly candid Vanity Fair article.
This sounds as likely as anything else, that Susie Wiles was like “f–k it, let’s do a primetime speech, it couldn’t hurt.” They wanted to change the newscycle, and it worked – now everyone’s talking about how Trump is a demented a–hole who lies 24-7. The Atlantic’s coverage of Trump’s speech called it what it was: the equivalent of Trump saying “quiet, piggy” to America.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid.
